S U N D A Y   S N I P P E T S (tm) # 3 7            30 July 9 5 

                   Pilgrim's Progress Excerpt
                   --------------------------

I wanted to use the opening portion of John Bunyan's _Pilgrim's
Progress_ as this week's Snippet.  Bunyan's classic is probably the
second greatest bestseller (next to the Bible) in the Christian world,
and has been translated into many languages.  It was a school text in past
generations, and has been an encouragement and teacher to millions.  It was
written from a prison in England circa 1676.

_Pilgrim's Progress_ is set forth as a dream of the chief character, 
Christian, and allegorically recounts the experience of a person from
his pre-faith time, to his personal conversion to Christ, to his walk as a 
believer.  He becomes a pilgrim in this world on his way to the 'Celestial 
City', which will be his true home forever.  

I leave you with this opening passage, hoping you may become interested in
reading (or re-reading) this timeless spiritual classic.



                     THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 
                      IN THE SIMILITUDE OF
                            A DREAM 

AS I WALKED THROUGH THE WILDERNESS OF THIS world, I lighted on 
a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that 
place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, 
and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain 
place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and 
a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the 
book, and read therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled; 
and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a 
lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do? 

In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as 
long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive 
his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his 
trouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his 
wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: O my dear 
wife, said he, and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear
friend, am in my self undone by reason of a burden that lieth 
hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our 
city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful 
overthrow, both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet 
babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see
not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be
delivered. At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that
they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because
they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head;
therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep
might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed. But
the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore,
instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the
morning was come, they would know how he did. He told them, Worse
and worse: he also set to talking to them again; but they began
to be hardened. They also sought to drive away his distemper by
harsh and surly carriages to him; sometimes they would deride,
sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite
neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber,
to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his own misery; he
would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and
sometimes praying: and thus for some days he spent his time. 

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that 
he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly
distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had 
done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved? 

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would  
run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not 
tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named       
Evangelist coming to him, who asked, Wherefore dost thou cry?   
He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand, at I am
condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment; and I find
that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do 
the second. 

      {Christian no sooner leaves the World but meets 
       Evangelist, who lovingly him greets 
       With tidings of another: and doth shew
       Him how to mount to that from this below.}

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is 
attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear 
that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than 
the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I be not  
fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgment, 
and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these things 
make me cry.

Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou
still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he
gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Flee
from the wrath to come. 
                                        - John Bunyan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sunday Snippets" is the trademark of G. MacKenzie Strickland.  May be 
freely redistributed  - Please forward to a friend.  Sunday Snippets are
posted weekly on Newsgroups like Soc.Religion.Christian and this one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   "The worst prison would be a closed heart."  - Pope John Paul II




---------------------------------------------------------
file: /pub/resources/text/sunday.snippets: snip95-037.txt

.